The Lords of Salem (2012), US
I find Rob Zombie’s rock’n’roll attitude towards film making endearing. I must admit I am a fan and despite various hitches in his career (namely Halloween I + II) his films, though flawed, are always exciting, wild and lawless. This time around he has basically created a film in tribute to his wife and long time partner, Sheri Moon Zombie, in the guise of a horror film. - much like Tarantino’s tribute to Uma Thurman, Kill Bill, which was essentially one long and sprawling love letter in the guise of an exploitation/revenge/martial arts extravaganza. However, unlike Thurman, who is a (mostly) wonderful and charismatic actor who can hold a film on her own slim shoulders, Ms. Zombie, well, can’t. So the film has many of Zombie’s staple features including some wonderful animation, a few cool satanic ritual scenes and some great music, but, to watch Sheri Moon in almost every scene try to carry the weight of Rob’s aspirations, is too much. I still love him and will wait patiently for his next project.
2.5/5
IMDB
Splinter (2008), US
Entertaining lo budget indie horror with good enough performances and slightly stingy FX though overall liked the general spirit and aspirations. If they ever get a budget for a sequel I’ll be at the front of the queue.
3/5
Toddla T Sound System - Worst Enemy
..and then there’s this track which is so delicious I just can’t stop listening to it.
Koreless - Sun
Haven’t been this blown a way by an electronic/ambient tune like this since Boards of Canada.
Botanika label artists, Polar Pair are our first guests in hour 2 and continue where we left off in the first hour with Universal Robot Band and into a couple of their own productions, the Sinden remix for Elizabeth Rose and L-Vis 1990. Then it’s an accapella from Zombie Zombie, Deft and Django Django, with a little help from Tim Maia.
Our second guest is Kidsuke, the collaboration of Kidkanevil and Daisuke Tanabe, stripping it down with Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto, through electronic delights from Yosi Korikawa, Balam Acab and an instrumental from the excellent SpaceGhostPurrp. We hear ‘Tiny Concrete Block’ from Kidsuke, plus DZA, Blue Daisy and the Shigeto remix for Sufjan Stevens and another Kidsuke track bringing proceedings to an end.
PART 3 - Polar Pair https://twitter.com/_NDV_ http://www.botanika.co.il/
Universal Robot Band _ Space Disco _ Panther
Polar Pair _ Star _ Botanika
Elizabeth Rose _ Ready (Sinden Remix) _ Grizzly
Polar Pair _ Six in the Morning _ Unreleased
L-Vis 1990 _ Tonight (KiNK Like It’s 1990 Dub) _ Island
Zombie Zombie _ Rocket Number 9 (A Cappella) _ Versatile
How to Dress Well _ & It Wa U (Polar Pair Dress Up remix) _ Promo
Deft _ The Traveller _ Skullcandy
Django Django _ Skies Over Cairo (Bullion Version) _ Because
Tim Maia _ You Don’t Know What I Know _ Luaka Bop
PART 4 - Kidsuke https://twitter.com/kidsuke
Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto _ Attack Transition _ Raster-Noton
Danny Elfman _ Dad’s Talk _ Walt Disney
kidkanevil _ Lantern 1 (Daisuke Tanabe Remix) _ First Word
Yosi Horikawa _ Wandering _ First Word
Balam Acab _ Ass Pop _ self-released
SpaceGhostPurrp _ Raider Prayer Inst _ 4AD
Crystal Somethings _ Spektrums _ unreleased
itsuitsuitsu _ unknown _ unknown
Kumisolo _ Cheap Pop Song _ flau
The Electronic Anthology Project of Dinosaur Jr _ Feel The Pain _ self-released
Chesslo Junior _ Cash Wave (NKC Remix) _ self-released
DZA _ Battle Beat 4 _ unreleased
Blue Daisy _ The Emperors Loss _ unreleased
Cokiyu _ Little Wave _ flau
Kidsuke _ Tiny Concrete Block _ Brownswood
Notuv _ Relation _ Bunkai-Kei
Sufjan Stevens _ Futile Devices (Shigeto Remix) _ self-released
Kidsuke ft Sonicbrat _ One Day We Thought Of Our Friends… _ Project Mooncircle
Election 2/Triad Election (2006), Hong Kong
The epic second installment in Johnny To’s masterpiece Triad Serial, is every bit as awesome as Election, but seen as a whole, provides a deeper, more thoughtful and more fulfilling viewing experience. Boom.
4.5/5
Sheer awesomeness
Penumbra (2012), Argentina
The Bogliano brothers’ follow up to 2010’s Cold Sweat, is a much more rewarding affair. Despite heavy influences from the likes of classics such as Polansky’s Rosemary’s Baby and more recent fair such as Ti West’s The House of the Devil, this film stands on its own two feet and delivers the fun in body bags. Cristina Brondo delivers a fantastic performance in the main role as a highly strung, competitive, motor mouthed, cynical and bitchy lawyer from Spain, on a trip to Buenos Aires, to rent out the shitty family flat to a bunch of weirdos. I was slightly less impressed with the Boglianos’ decision to hit the lowest common denominator by inexplicably adding a scene where Brondo, a clearly very attractive actress by default, gets smothered in baby oil for no apparent reason, unless there was some super clever tongue in cheek comment there that flew above me. Despite some of the criticism I read, I found the jazzy soundtrack refreshing.
3.5/5
Snabba Cash 2 (2012), Sweden
More of the same in Babak Najafi’s second installment in the franchise yet still, highly entertaining stuff.
3.5/5
Election (2005), Hong Kong
First installment in Johnny To’s epic Election serial, this is a masterful piece of crime drama. Excellent performances, engaging and well paced plot and perfectly executed action scenes (not enough though..).
4/5
